Friday, November 30, 2012

"Hold my beer, y'all..."

So, an off-duty IMPD officer working security at a bar... stop snickering! ...noticed a couple of dudes in a black SUV doing donuts and burnouts in the parking lot and otherwise operating their vehicle in a manner that might lead one to believe they were intoxicated.

Operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated without a badge is a crime in Indianapolis, and so the police officer went and got in his squad car to go inform them of this fact.

Madcap hijinks ensued, culminating in a high-speed chase around the parking lot that wound up with the SUV on its side, bent like a banana, and the rescue crews having to open its roof like a sardine can to extricate the driver and passenger and rush them to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

I know this isn't usual VFTP material, but something about a high-speed chase ending in a possibly fatal wreck despite never leaving the parking lot just kinda caught my eye.

20 comments:

Heh. makes me think of Charlie Daniel's " Ballad of the Un-easy Rider"....'I had ta chase 'em, jest once, round the.parkin' lot.'. Yep, good times! (used to brag the tee-wee producers got the idea f/ The Dukes of Hazzard from the way some of the yahoos I grew up with operated, changed the locale cuz' nobody'd believe dat shit happened in Cen. Md.). B-)

I'm guessing Chevy Tahoe. Looks like they tripped over one of those tire stops while sliding sideways, and rolled it into that tree. Nearly tore the front end off. There should not have been enough spring in the body/frame to bounce it back onto the drivers side as shown. Makes me think they were actually heading toward the camera originally, and the momentum spun them around after the tree strike.If the strike point had been a foot farther back on the vehicle, they would have gone directly into body bags.

Some years ago, the San Francisco Police were looking for a replacement for the big sedans that were slated to go out of production. They foolishly decided to check out the Explorer, instead of the wider, much more stable Expedition model. Two officers then proceeded to roll one in a parking lot during the trials. They ended up with a stay in the hospital as a result.

1. I assume the parking lot is private property, and in any event, not a public street. I was not aware that operating a motor vehicle NOT on a public street while intoxicated fell under the prohibition of that statute. In California for decades that was the reason you could go to Pismo Beach, one of the few beaches where vehicles with ordinary street tires could be driven on the sand, and drink and drive. Pismo Beach was not a public roadway, so it was legal until sometime in the 90's I'm surprised that the moonlighting officer did not strive to drive (sorry) the donut drivers onto the public street so as to be arrested for driving on a public roadway.

2. "Despite never leaving the parking lot." And here we thought the parking lot chase scene in "Diamonds are forever" was complete fiction.

So...if it WASN'T illegal to do donuts while drunk, the cop was acting as PRIVATE security, when he took it upon himself to intervene under color of law.

He then forced the private citizens into a chase on private property, still acting as private security, while using his police vehicle, and was instrumental in causing a wreck that may not have happened without his interference. He could have called for on-duty police who could have arrested them once on public streets when the left.

Yeah, cuz we all know that someone drunk, (probably) driving reckless in a parking lot would never ever leave the parking lot for the highway. Far better to let said reckless, drunk driver make it to the open road where he will take out your mama and then bitch about how the off duty LEO "should" have intervened when he had the chance in the safe parking lot.